Net U.S. dollar longs slide to lowest in 4 weeks-CFTC, Reuters

(Adds details, table)

April 17 (Reuters) - Speculators reduced positive bets on

the U.S. dollar, pushing the currency's net long position to

their lowest in four weeks, according to data from the

Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Thomson Reuters

released on Friday.

The value of the dollar's net long position slipped to

$39.68 billion in the week ended April 14, from $40.27 billion

the previous week. Net longs on the dollar fell for a third

straight week.

This is the first time in four weeks that net dollar longs

fell below $40 billion.

A recent round of soft U.S. economic data has backed

expectations that the pace of interest rate increases by the

Federal Reserve will be slower than initially thought. This has

taken the steam out of the dollar rally.

To be long a currency is to take a view it will rise, while

being short is a bet that its value will decline.

Net short positions on the euro, meanwhile, continued to

decline after extremely oversold positions.

The Reuters calculation for the aggregate U.S. dollar

position is derived from net positions of International Monetary

speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and

Canadian and Australian dollars.

JAPANESE YEN (Contracts of 12,500,000 yen)

14Apr2015 week Prior week

Long 54,783 53,320

Short 77,853 77,769

Net -23,070 -24,449

EURO (Contracts of 125,000 euros)

14Apr2015 week Prior week

Long 45,264 39,444

Short 257,611 254,702

Net -212,347 -215,258

POUND STERLING (Contracts of 62,500 pounds sterling)

14Apr2015 week Prior week

Long 33,993 37,641

Short 70,038 71,942

Net -36,045 -34,301

SWISS FRANC (Contracts of 125,000 Swiss francs)

14Apr2015 week Prior week

Long 12,240 12,746

Short 12,070 12,626

Net 170 120

CANADIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Canadian dollars)

14Apr2015 week Prior week

Long 23,020 22,081

Short 53,598 52,100

Net -30,578 -30,019

AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Aussie dollars)

14Apr2015 week Prior week

Long 55,077 55,928

Short 97,510 96,209

Net -42,433 -40,281

MEXICAN PESO (Contracts of 500,000 pesos)

14Apr2015 week Prior week

Long 63,521 42,185

Short 55,160 65,110

Net 8,361 -22,925

NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 New Zealand dollars)

14Apr2015 week Prior week

Long 17,081 16,950

Short 11,078 11,172

Net 6,003 5,778

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Ted Botha)